What a life. It's only now that I'm reading, in the obits, much about him at all (got his pilot's licence so young, and so on). I guess I never thought to look beyond the most famous bit. Seems like a guy with tremendous character, from all the tributes popping up.

In "First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong," James R. Hansen wrote that in Mr. Armstrong’s first year at Purdue, Charles E. Yeager broke the sound barrier in the rocket-powered Bell X-1. It was exciting but bittersweet for the young student. He thought aviation history had already passed him by.

"All in all, for someone who was immersed in, fascinated by, and dedicated to flight," Mr. Armstrong told his biographer, "I was disappointed by the wrinkle in history that had brought me along one generation late. I had missed all the great times and adventures in flight."

Well, the moon does get bombarded by meteors, so if the prints are gone that's what I'd bet my money on.

Anyways, yes it's very sad. Unfortunately, Apollo 11 was long before my time but who didn't grow up admiring Neil Armstrong? Arguably the most famous astronaut of all time. And the moon landing was arguably the greatest feat the human race has ever accomplished.

_________________Half the lies I tell are not true."luckily us vegans dont go into cardiac arrest...but we do go into food comas" - Adam Crisis

Well, the moon does get bombarded by meteors, so if the prints are gone that's what I'd bet my money on.

They're still there.

This picture was taken this year, and you can see the paths they left as dark lines between the remnants of the lander and the crater off to the right, and all around the area where they set up equipment. Also, not THAT many meteorites hit the moon. There are just lots of craters because the moon is very very old.

Those footprints will be there effectively forever. Barring catastrophic lunar events, those footprints will outlast humanity.

That is pretty amazing, that his footprints could literally be there for countless millennia. I wish we had the societal excitement about science that seemed to exist around the time of Armstrong's career heyday.

It was someone on Twitter saying that sort of thing about his footprints, with this photo, that made me really sad. I try to remember that lots of amazing steps in space exploration have been taken since, and humans really might step foot on Mars one day (not so sure it'll be in my lifetime...) That's the next really big one. I'd like to know if Armstrong followed the Mars Curiosity coverage, or was too sick. I cried that afternoon (Sydney time). What an incredible journey.

Also, my mother pointed out that things like the eradication of smallpox have been huge, less-heralded achievements (or less-heralded in the long term, anyway). True enough — lots of great things happen. But space exploration is kind of in a category all its own, I think.